Singapore

SG S'pore buyers splash cash on student property

Singapore property buyers and investors were continuing to snap up student property investments at the latest property exhibition marketing this particular investment last weekend.

Vita Student, a developer of high-end student properties in the north west of England, saw strong levels of both interest and sales at an exhibition for its latest offering – First Street, Manchester – which was showcased last weekend.

The company, which opened an office in Singapore last year to focus on the growing number of local clients, has developed properties which cater to the growing number of international students in the UK who are demanding higher standards of living accommodation during their studies. Its previous projects in Liverpool sold extremely well to Singapore-based property investors.

The main attraction for the S$150,000+ investment was the potential returns. One buyer who spoke to PropertyGuru said he was pleased with the minimum annual return of nine percent which the company was offering. The Singaporean investor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also noted the emergence of a resale market for the investment class – something which has only recently started to emerge.

“What worried me about student accommodation before was there was no clear exit strategy and as an investor that’s always something to plan before you invest anywhere,” he said.

Justin Humphreys, Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, said: “As with previous events we have done in Singapore we have been really pleased with both the quality and quantity of attendees, and the number of sales we have been able to achieve.

“Singaporeans really understand that there is segmentation in the student accommodation market and that in the long term the luxury end of the market where we operate will deliver the greatest returns.”

Student accommodation has outperformed other commercial property investments in the United Kingdom during the last two years, and in 2012 was noted as one of the best-performing property asset classes in its own right.

A number of UK developers have sold their projects in Singapore over the course of the last 18 months, and it is expected that developers specialising in this kind of property investment from elsewhere in the world will showcase their projects here during the coming months.

Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@allproperty.com.sg